


Looking after you

by mrsreeder



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-29
Updated: 2020-05-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24440254
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrsreeder/pseuds/mrsreeder
Summary: Greg Lestrade discovers his feelings for Mycroft Holmes. Now he wants to get closer to Mycroft to be able to support him...but will he actually earn his trust?
Relationships: Mycroft Holmes/Greg Lestrade
Kudos: 46





	Looking after you

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first English-language fanfiction...and my first serious fanfic ever. So please don't expect too much...but I hope you'll like it anyway!

DI Greg Lestrade sat at his desk in his Scotland Yard office. It was just another one of these dreary days at work. Lots of files and papers were piling up on his desk, but he didn’t look at any of them. Instead of working he just stared out of the window, deeply lost in thoughts. A few weeks had passed since the incident at Sherrinford. And even though life followed its normal course again - well, more or less - he just couldn’t help but think of the events. And more specifically, he couldn’t stop thinking of what happened to Mycroft Holmes back there. Well, to be entirely honest, it had started way before the incident: he often caught himself thinking of Sherlock’s older brother. The two of them had met quite a few times over the last years - mostly because of Sherlock or some work-related things, so he knew Mycroft quite well by now. But still…Greg had sometimes wondered why Mycroft took up a really big part of his thoughts. And it just seemed to get worse every day. But it wasn’t until shortly before the Sherrinford incident that Greg finally realized something and the realization hit him like a ton of bricks: he had developed feelings for the other man. He wasn’t sure how or when that happened - but then again, he rather wondered by then why he didn’t notice his feelings earlier because everything seemed quite natural to him after he realized it. But even after this, he kept his feelings to himself. He had no idea how to bring up the subject in one of their few conversations. And he didn’t expect Mycroft to reciprocate his feelings anyway.

But then Sherrinford happened and Sherlock had asked Greg to take care of his brother. Of course he hadn’t hesitated a moment when asked and he and Mycroft had talked quite a few times right after the incident. Greg noticed quickly that even though Sherlock didn’t seem to care that much about his brother, he was right about one thing: Mycroft really wasn’t as strong as he thought he was. He rarely ever showed many emotions and even less weaknesses. But he was clearly shaken up after the past events. Greg was glad he could be there for Mycroft and they had even gotten relatively close, but at the same time he still couldn’t help but wish for more. Sometimes Mycroft looked really sad and weary, but only when he thought Greg wouldn’t notice anything. At such occasions Greg just really wanted to hug and comfort him, but he never found the courage to do so. Instead he just tried to enjoy their shared time and the knowledge that he was now one of the people closest to Mycroft. Whatever much that would mean with someone who was so distant as the older Holmes brother. Anyway, over the course of the last weeks their meetings became less frequent and everything slowly went back to how it was before. And Greg wasn’t sure whether he should be happy about that.

The phone rang and Greg snapped back into reality. The call was just something related to a case which he recently managed to solve, and so he continued his train of thought. They last met two weeks ago, which felt like an eternity to him. He could give Mycroft a call again, but when they last met the other man had made it quite clear that he felt alright again and didn’t need Greg’s help anymore. Of course he hadn’t worded it like exactly that, but Greg had got the message. And of course Mycroft was lying - after everything what he had to endure in the past and what happened to him just recently there was just no way that he was alright or even fine. Talking about it was painful though and so Mycroft always preferred to keep his thoughts about the matter to himself, a thought Greg could understand really well. Still…he decided that he would probably hate himself forever if the didn’t take one more chance. And so he grabbed his phone and called Mycroft.

Just two hours later Greg heard a knock on his office door and Mycroft Holmes entered the room. He gave a short greeting and came straight to the point. “Gregory, I think I made myself quite clear at our last meeting. I’m thankful for your support on this matter, but I’m really quite fine - and I always was. And you don’t need to feel obliged to meet up with me just because Sherlock told you so.” Greg missed the opportunity to say that he genuinely wanted to help, not because he felt obliged to do so. And he wasn’t surprised that Mycroft knew that Sherlock had asked Greg to look after him, even though he never told him. After all this time, he got kind of used to Mycroft just knowing things.

“Be that as is may, you are here now though.” Greg knew that Mycroft still tensed up at the mention of Sherrinford or especially the name of his sister Eurus. And it wasn’t entirely fair, but Greg has used this knowledge to his benefit. He just knew that Mycroft would come to his office if he casually dropped this words, but he felt more that a bit of guilt over that. He suspected that - despite whatever else he might claim - Mycroft still felt uneasy about having to rewrite Sherlock’s memories and lying to their parents about what happened to Eurus. The events had strained the relationship between Mycroft and his parents even more than it already was before. And once more Greg wished that he could actually do something to help the man he fell in love with.

“Yes, I obviously am, though I really shouldn’t have come here and I can’t stay long. I shouldn’t even have left the office with the things currently going on in the world… Oh, please don’t ask me for more details or you might get a visit from…let’s just say, some people which are very good at their job.” Greg flinched a bit at this threat which kind of sounded like an ironic remark, but could prove only too true.

“I know, I know. And I know you’re doing a really important job for our country. But, you know…your own matters are important too. Look at it this way: you wouldn’t want your private problems to have a negative influence on your ability to do your job, don’t you?”

That was apparently a quite amusing notion to Mycroft, as he smiled sardonically. “Please Gregory, even you should know that I would never allow that to happen. And honestly, you can’t compare a single person’s matters to the security of an entire nation.” As if Greg didn’t know that. ‘But to me, your problems might just be more important than the country…,’ he thought.

“So…talking about Sherlock, did you meet him recently?”

Mycroft sighed. “Did you really want me to meet you here just to ask me about Sherlock? No, I didn’t. I’ll contact him once I’ve got a case for him.”

“So you are avoiding him. Are you worried that he might be angry at you? I mean, the events must have taken a toll on him too. But don’t you think that he’ll understand why you had to alter his memories and all that?”

“I am not avoiding him, there was just no need for us to meet. But you can be assured that I am still keeping an eye on him, in case he might do something…stupid yet again, if that’s your concern. … Gregory, I’m honestly starting to think that our conversation right now is pretty pointless.”

“Oh, I don’t think it’s pointless. But you know…you’re always looking after your brother, but I wonder… Has anyone ever looked after you?”

And with that, Greg must have hit a nerve. Even though he said those last two sentences more to himself it was obvious that Mycroft must have heard him just fine. Greg was really sure that the other man just flinched for a bit, but he wasn’t entirely sure. It was quite difficult to tell with Mycroft - he was called the ‘Iceman’ for a reason after all. He was quite relieved that at least he didn’t seem angry. He wouldn’t honestly want to imagine an angry Mycroft. (Or rather, the image wasn’t that bad, he thought…just not in this serious situation.) And he would have definitely regretted his words if they would mean that Mycroft wouldn’t want to talk to him anymore.

After a few moments of almost eerie silence, Mycroft rose from the chair and apparently wanted to leave. So he decided to deliberately ignore the remark, after all. "Well, if that was all you wanted to talk about…I told you I don’t have much time.”

‘Yeah, mostly because you prefer to bury yourself in your work so you don’t need to think about certain things,’ was what Greg thought, but he swallowed down the response. Instead, he got up too. “Oh yeah, right. Just let me show you out.” 

As the two of them had just entered the lift of the office building, Greg cleared his throat. “Uh…well, even though you say you don’t need my help with this anymore…would it be alright if we meet up from time to time anyway? We don’t need to talk about…this issue, but we could just, uh, hang out together?” He kinda felt like a coward because it took him a surprising amount of courage just to say these words and he feared he might have sounded really dumb. And he didn’t even know why, but one thing he knew for sure: that he just didn’t want to miss this chance. But to be honest, he didn’t expect a positive answer.

Mycroft looked at him with a raised eyebrow and a weird look in his eyes. Once again Greg was wondering if he was right, but…he could have sworn that Mycroft’s expression almost seemed like he was happy about Greg’s question for a moment. “My schedule is quite packed as usual, but I think I could spare some time in the evenings. You could accompany me to a restaurant, if that is fine with you?”

“Oh yes, yes, that’s totally fine! Just give me a call and we figure out something, alright?”

“I will, Gregory. And now please excuse me, I really have to leave. Goodbye.”

Greg looked after Mycroft as he got into the car which waited in front of the building. He couldn’t help but grin because of what just happened. 'I guess that means he must have sort of enjoyed my company after all. He never meets up with people who annoy him outside of work. And that means there’s still a chance for me to tell him one day.’ 

And so they would meet up at a restaurant - and he was sure Mycroft would choose a quite classy, expensive restaurant, of course. “I should start saving up some money, or else I won’t be able to order anything,“ he said to himself with a smirk as he started going back upstairs to his office. And he thought: maybe that day wasn’t so bad after all.


End file.
